My name is Peter Dewsnap and I was born in Sheffield on the 19th March 1930. We lived on Normanton St then which I think is Shiregreen but moved to Earl Marshall Rd Pitsmoor then Hunsley St Pitsmoor. At the beginning of the war, 1939, we moved to Alexandra Rd Heeley where I attended Ann's Rd school, a very unhappy time of my life. There were two sisters, the Hurd sisters, one tall and angular who was head mistress and one short and fat. They were both sadists straight out of Walt Disney's Snow White. I remember being accused of carving something on a desk top. I hadn't done it but I knew who had. Of course, you couldn't grass in those days so my name went in the punishment book. In those days, that was a major disgrace. Today it would be laughed at. But, I was lucky. I passed the "Scholarship" (as the acceptance exam was known then) and was accepted for Firth Park Grammar School.
I was there from 1941 until 1946. Those were the happiest years of my boyhood. It was a superb school and, I have always thought, probably better than King Ted's in those days. Because it was wartime, the "Red Dress" was not mandatory but I remember my mother, always inventive, found an old blazer which she dyed red for me and bought me a matching cap so I was au fait!
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The photo to the left is of my 1946 form: Form 5B. I have everyone's names listed, but unfortunately cannot associate them with the faces. If anyone could help sort them out, I would be very grateful! I am on the back row fifth from the left and Colin is fourth from the left. I wonder how many of us are left? (Please click for a larger image) |
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There are listed on this site a number of teachers, most of which were after my time. The most famous of all of course was Spike Johnson who I had for History and also was my Scoutmaster. I remember well a fortnight's camp at lake Coniston in 1941 when we had a heat wave. I did my First Class hike there. But, Spike was not my favourite. That position was held by Mr CD (Colin Dring) Draycott. He was my form master and taught me French and German. In those days, corporal punishment was accepted (I wish it still was) and I had my share of the cane. Draycott though, was the only one I ever knew who never laid a finger on a pupil. He held everyone in line by the sheer respect he commanded. Everyone loved him. If you stepped out of line, he brought you back through an amazing ability to ridicule in a very funny and, by no means objectionable way. I remember a classmate called Hawley. He was an inveterate twitterer and Draycott dubbed him The Old Hen since he was always clacking. Then he disappeared eventually to enter a class in progress some two weeks later. Draycott asked him where he had been. "Ill Sir". "And what was the matter?" "Croup, Sir" (which, if you don't know, is a disease of chickens). Draycott sat down, put his head in his hands and rocked with laughter. The whole class erupted and Hawley laughed too. My best and favourite subject was Chemistry followed closely by German and French. My teacher was Mrs Prods. The Chemistry teacher was Mr Rhodes who had acquired the nickname Prods. I never knew why. His wife looked like a German Polizei member with combed back hair, rimless glasses and a forbidding look but she was a lovely woman and an excellent teacher. Dr Eker (Joe Plug) was another. Quite a character and a great teacher. Also Jock McKay who would chase use round the gym wielding a plimsoll if we misbehaved. I remember Parry, the music teacher. though I never had him. We called him Harry Parry after the famous Jazz man. Duke Weatherall I had. 'Daddy' Machin (Physics) I remember well but can't remember his nickname. Oh yes, it was 'Daddy'. Moke Hipkins for history and Bertha Zeiher (her of the passion killer bloomers!) for the same. Pansy Pascoe for Gym (called Pansy 'cos he used to mince around on the balls of his feet). Weren't we a rotten lot, picking on our teachers the way we did?
The only one any of us never had any time for was Jimmy Gagan (maths). He was a nasty piece of work and everyone hated him. I had him for one session and learned very little. His comment on my report card (I still have it) was "Lazy and uninterested". It never was my favourite subject and I'll never know how I managed a Credit in the School Cert exams.
So, what else? Well, I made friends. My best one was Colin Gladwyn. Unfortunately I never have been able to find a trace of him over the years. Colin and I would go hiking every week end. Also we had a common interest in butterflies and moths. We would roam the countryside collecting them. Also we would breed them. One of our favourite places (and still is for me) was Burbage Moor. I knew that place like the back of my hand. It is a wonderful hobby. You learn a lot about life from it and it gets you out and about the countryside. Far superior to computer games!
So, what happened after that? Well, I got a job as chemical analyst at ESC in Brightside. Then I went in the Army (National Service) as an Ammunition Examiner (explosives and all that - a result of my infatuation with chemistry). Back to ESC then on to Sammy Fox's in Stocksbridge running the gas atmospheres lab. In between, I met a lovely girl called Joan Buckmaster at the City Hall where we spent all our time dancing. For some unknown reason she fancied me and we married in 1952. Had our 51st anniversary this year. We have three boys and three grandchildren who we visited recently. She was the one who convinced me I should get a degree from Sheffield University which I did the hard way - at night after working all day. I must admit, she had the right idea. After Fox's, I joined BISRA developing Inert Gas Technology and then Electroslag Refining of steels.
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We moved to Canada (Sault Ste Marie) in 1967 for the adventure and then on to the US in 1970 where I joined VASCO, a company for which I had done research at BISRA. After that, we moved around the US and wound up in New Jersey where I worked for Allied Signal who wanted someone to develop the chemistry of amorphous alloys which they had invented. I did that and they decided to build a production plant in South Carolina. I came here to design furnace systems and processes and to train personnel. It was a good move for us and we are still here after I retired in 1992 as Chief Metallurgist. We live in Conway, which is 10 miles inland from Myrtle Beach, the Golf capital of the world. |
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For years, I have been trying to remember the names of two
superb teachers. The first one taught Maths and he taught me
more than all the other Maths teachers added together. He
died at an early age and was buried at Ecclesall. He was so
well-liked that the whole school attended his funeral. I
have written about this elsewhere on this site.
About four years ago, I had a message from Tony Sedgwick who
had been at FPGS but after my time. He had read what I had
written and said that teacher was his Dad, Bill Sedgwick.
You can see him on the listing of 1939 teachers shown at the
bottom of the page. He is number 28.
I never knew how he died but, apparently, he was a member of
the Home Guard and, one day on manoeuvres, someone had left
a loaded PIAT (an anti-tank weapon) on the ground. He picked
it up and it fired, injuring him severely and he was taken
to hospital. He had a brain haemorrhage but due to a
combination of bad diagnosis and wrong treatment, died some
time later. That story from Tony.
The second teacher is still an enigma to some extent. He
joined us around 1945 and taught me Chemistry. It turned out
though that he actually was a physicist and had been one of
Sir Robert Watson Watts' group developing RADAR. He had a
habit of walking around with one hand in his trousers pocket
jiggling his keys. Later, he told us that it was a habit
they were encouraged to adopt when working with equipment
with very high electrical potentials. The point was, that if
you touched something "hot", the electricity would tend to
go down your body to ground whereas if you were touching
something with your other hand, it could pass across the
heart and kill you, so, hand in pocket meat you might finish
on your back but at least you would be alive.
After we had taken our School Cert exams, we had him for a
double period. Rather than more Chemistry, he asked us what
we would like to do. Deathly silence of course. Then, he
asked if we knew anything about Radio, which we didn't. So
he gave us a talk on the subject covering diodes, triodes,
oscillatory circuits, the lot, finishing with describing the
Cavity Magnetron, that piece of equipment vital to RADAR
which they had developed and gave us such a great edge over
the Germans. He was such a brilliant teacher that we
understood the subject (not in depth, of course).
For years, I had tried to find out who this man was without
result. An old contemporary of mine said recently that he
remembered him and thought his name was Bridges so I asked
Tony Sedgwick. He remembers him very well, he was very
active in the Scouts and, according to Tony, was involved in
the destruction of the Eindhoven Bridge during the War. But,
I can find no reference to him on this site. He remains very
much a man of mystery. If any one else remembers him, please
let me know.
Peter Dewsnap 03.03.07 |
Related information:
- Read about Peter's Wartime years
- More on Peter Dewsnap: Peter Dewsnap's Pictures
- ...and here
- FPGS pupils
